Explore opportunities and design solutions
In this phase, we ideate to get new solutions. These new ideas form concepts and MVP’s we can test in the current journey. When working within customer journey methodology, we prioritise the opportunity areas that can have the biggest impact on customer experience. When working with a to-be journey, we create development initiatives for each separate persona guided by the CX principles.
Define the key customer experience principles to guide the solutions
When defining tactical solutions and customer experience improvements, we apply the five customer experience principles outlined in managing experiences. Take a look at the principles first. Then use the relevant elements of them to translate customer needs and insights into the desired customer experience.
All five principles can be applicable in any moment of interaction. But some are more crucial than others in a particular moment of interaction. For example, being trustworthy and reliable, as well as easy and convenient might be more relevant in the order and pay moment of interaction, than being inspiring and imaginative. The customer insights define which customer experience principles are most important in each moment of interaction.
Here is a template to help you get insights into your current experience and the presence of the Customer experience principles:
Prioritise biggest impact opportunity areas
Identify the main pain points and improvement areas in the as-is customer journey. The biggest pain points should be visible in the emotional curve in the as-is customer journey. Consider how critical the pain points are for the overall experience and in enabling customers to move on with their journey. For example, are these pain points in the moments that matter section? Do any KPIs indicate that we lose a significant number of customers as a result?
In which areas will improvements have the biggest impact on customer experience? Take into account whether they are common challenges across CMPs and / or markets to ensure a focus on the biggest opportunities.
Here is a template to get insights into pain points and prioritising opportunities:
Generating ideas
When brainstorming and ideating alone or better yet, with a team there are techniques to help you spark creativity. Use these techniques to find new ideas and from these ideas create little concepts or MVP’s (minimal viable products: the most basic version with essential elements of your concept that can be tested and used to get feedback for the users)
Another source of ideas is other IKEA markets and our competitors. Take this in and use as inspiration for your own challenge! When ideating, ignore what we can or can’t currently do and any constraints.
When creating a to-be journey
Use to-be customer mapping to define desired journeys. Having mapped the solutions, later you’ll look at the organisational requirements for delivering them.Define to-be customer journeys for each persona
A to-be customer journey map depicts the optimised customer experience. It outlines the ideal interactions and touchpoints, addressing pain points, making customers happy, and aligning with organisational goals.Start with the already filled in as-is journey from the last phase (discover and define key customer experience challenges). And extend it, mapping the input for the to-be journey below with the focus on the customer experience principles, job to be done and potential solutions.
Check for any gaps and assess the need to dig deeper into a certain part of a journey. Involve the stakeholders in validating the feasibility of the solutions. Identify collaboration opportunities between teams.
In the final phase of customer journey methodology (define organisational requirements and owners) we will populate the rest of the template including organisational requirements, owners and KPIs.
